Learn About The Holocaust

My Saved Research

To help reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 (coronavirus), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, including the Library and Archives Reading Room, is closed until further notice. Staff members are working remotely to answer reference requests to the extent feasible. Reference questions, including those regarding access to collections, may be directed to Reference@ushmm.org. For questions about donating materials, please contact Curator@ushmm.org. Please do not send any materials until the Museum reopens to the public. Thank you for your understanding.

To help reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 (coronavirus), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, including the Library and Archives Reading Room, is closed until further notice. Staff members are working remotely to answer reference requests to the extent feasible. Reference questions, including those regarding access to collections, may be directed to Reference@ushmm.org. For questions about donating materials, please contact Curator@ushmm.org. Please do not send any materials until the Museum reopens to the public. Thank you for your understanding.

Search All 1 Records in Our Collections

The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 5 mark note

Object | Accession Number: 1996.60.1

5 (funf) mark receipt issued in the Łódź ghetto in Poland in May 1940. Nazi Germany occupied Poland on September 1, 1939; Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and annexed to the German Reich. In February, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. All currency was confiscated in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto. The scrip was designed by the Judenrat [Jewish Council] and includes traditional Jewish symbols. The Germans closed the ghetto in the summer of 1944 by deporting the residents to concentration camps or killing centers.

Offwhite rectangular paper scrip. The face has a watermark with a latticework pattern in green ink. The serial number in orange ink is in the upper left corner. The denomination 5 is in the lower left corner in bold font and in the upper right in a black square. There is a 1.75 inch left margin, then a rectangle with a curved upper left corner with a background of interlocked Jewish stars with a large Jewish star in a circle in the upper left corner in brown ink. Across the center is the textual denomination in black ink with brown highlights and German text. The back has a blank 1.75 inch margin, then a rectangle with a pattern of interlocked Stars of David in brown ink. There is German text in the upper left corner and a 7-branched candelabrum in the lower left corner. The denomination 5 in bold font, black and brown ink, is outside the border at the lower left corner; above this, near the upper right corner, is a Star of David outline in a black square.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.